Local school divisions concerned about increased prescription drug use

By Tim Kalinowski on December 9, 2017.

tkalinowski@medicinehatnews.com @MHNTimKal

Last week Medicine Hat’s three largest school districts — SD76, Medicine Hat Catholic and Prairie Rose — released a joint statement expressing shared concern “regarding drug use (Fentanyl) and overdoses in Medicine Hat and area.” While the statement was not tied to any specific incident, PRSD superintendent Roger Clark confirmed he has heard reports of increased prescription drug use among young people in the area.

“I haven’t heard anything about Fentanyl, but there have been some drug-related issues,” Clarke said. “And students have had some effects from that, where they have had to have some medical help — although not in Prairie Rose … So we had a conversation between the three local schools divisions, and we thought why not provide some information to parents so they can be aware this is going on in our area? We want to make parents aware of the potential dangers out there when you have youth taking prescription drugs that aren’t theirs.”

SD76 superintendent Mark Davidson also confirmed he had heard of some local cases of young people taking dangerous prescription drugs for the purposes of getting high.

“All three school divisions are concerned about the rising use of prescription drugs among young people in our community. You bet,” he said on Friday morning. “Our greatest message is we want moms and dads and guardians to engage with their sons and daughters in discussions about the dangers of taking any drug you may receive from anyone, and there is an increasing problem of drugs disguised as legitimate pharmaceuticals, which in fact are not.”

MHCBE Joe Colistro would not confirm he had heard of any specific incidents of drug use or overdoses among youth at local schools when asked, but did state there was a strong likelihood of such incidents happening in the city, given recent communications Alberta Education has put out on the rising problem province-wide.

“This is something we all need to be aware of, and all need to be working together on supporting these kids to make sure these incidents don’t happen,” he said. “I think this is a great opportunity here to have a positive story about how the districts are working together to support the kids, and how we share a common concern. At the end of the day, we want parents talking to their kids.”

For more information visit the school divisions’ websites to read the full statement. The statement contains links to resources for parents potentially dealing with youth abusing Fentanyl and other prescription drugs in the city.

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